The titles and links below will direct you to print copies when available. Click on the title to see all available formats, including recorded versions and eBooks.
You can learn more about using eBooks and eAudiobooks on our blog, and contact us if you need assistance. *Restrictions to using Hoopla apply based on your home address.
When we first encounter Helen, she seems like a doddery, unhappy old lady with nothing to look forward to. Enter Sipsworth, which is what she names the mouse who shows up in her house. She sees him as a companion rather than a pest, tries to create a hospitable environment, and when he gets deathly ill, connects with some folks who can help her nurse him back to health. There’s a charming surprise about her past (which I won’t give away here). When her isolation is broken by necessity, her life becomes full again, a joy for Helen, Sipsworth, and for this reader alike.
How to Live Safely in A Science Fictional Universe
It’s possible I read this when it came out in 2010, but the title leapt out at me recently because it seems to reflect our current state of being. The protagonist, Charles Yu, is a time travel technician. Clients get stuck in loops, but with tinkering he can sometimes offer another “reality” that might suit them better. He has a virtual sidekick, TAMMY, who has delightfully human attributes and vulnerabilities. Existential quandaries abound, like variations on Schrodinger’s Cat. For Charles, it turns out that the way through his apparently deadly trajectory is to arrive at the “elastic present.” Deadpan descriptions of scientific theories are shot through with underlying wit.
Upward mobility motivates the Shahs to move from a comfortable but modest neighborhood on the California coast to a nearby enclave that’s swanky and adjacent to a hot-shot school. Their middle daughter Maya is thrilled by the glamorous trappings, but her older sister Deepa is resistant and stays at her old high school. Brother Ajay, who’s a very tall 12-year-old, loves his drone; he’s undiagnosed but on the spectrum. When he’s arrested for flying it too near the local airstrip, the implications of brown skin and possible Muslim affiliations come down hard on the Shahs, who are non-practicing Hindus. Post 9/11, things get very scary for them. The family, who’d come from India to California 25 years ago, gets a hard lesson in being other in a smug, privileged community. Moving and suspenseful.
When this novel opens, the passengers on a short flight from Hobart to Sydney, Australia, have already been already stressed by flight delays and crying children. Then an unprepossessing old lady gets up and walks down the aisle, pointing at individuals and calmly announcing the date and circumstances of their deaths-to-be. It’s very puzzling and disturbing, to say the least. After they disembark, this bizarre event has a considerable impact on various characters, especially if they’re young, and their subsequent activities are shadowed by the prophecies. Word gets out as three predicted deaths occur, and there’s a great flurry of publicity and concern about the Death Lady, as she’s dubbed by the media. Chapters toggle between individual stories and the lady herself, as we learn why she did what she did. Fascinating.
Add a comment to: Neshama’s Choices for March 3